The Bundle
Original Illustration by Yevgenia Nayberg
Competition: 250-word Microfiction Challenge 2020, Final Round
Genre: Open
Action: Releasing an animal from a trap
Word: sense
Eliza had seen grief on many women’s faces during her calls, but none so mixed with urgency as Sara’s.
“Take her, Eliza. Rowan said he’d not hold a dead’un again. Be off. Please.”
Eliza wrapped the infant about her then put on her coat. She walked swiftly down the road, the brown dirt lightening to red as the sun rose.
By the reeds of the marsh she came upon Rowan, kneeling by one of his traps. A red fox eyed him warily from the back of the cage. Eliza fought the urge to turn into the woods as Rowan stood and approached her.
He searched her eyes.
“Baby’s dead?”
Eliza nodded.
He turned back to the fox. “And Sara?”
“Her spirit needs mending, but she'll heal,” said Eliza. “I’ll see to the burial.”
The fox mewled.
“They eat the fish,” Rowan said, glancing at Eliza. “Our hens, too. But—”
He bent down slowly and unlatched the spring to pull the door up. The creature bounded in a breath into the reeds.
“Just using their God-given sense. Feedin’ their families.”
His voice broke and Eliza squinted into the sun to keep her tears at bay.
Rowan looked up the road. “Where’s the littl’un?”
Eliza lowered her gaze. She felt the bundle snug on her hip and pulled her coat tight.
“God’s caught her, Rowan, you be sure.”
As he walked toward the silent house, Eliza heard the fox call to its young, a piercing, searching sound.
About the Author
Katie Doke Sawatzky is a freelance journalist and editor living on Canada's prairies in Treaty 4 territory and the homeland of the Metis, a land where there's always two weeks of -45 °C in February. She loves reading, cycling with her kids and making music with her partner Glenn.
